Corn Palace committee, architect and staff plan mural contracting and back-room repairs

Kevin, staff liaison for Corn Palace matters, told the council that architect Shimmer is preparing design options for renovation of the Corn Palace, including repairs to the back room and upgrades to heating and cooling. Shimmer has been onsite gathering photos and measurements and will return with plans after several weeks of work. "We had a meeting 10 days ago. We gave him direction on what we want him to do for the money we gave him. And he said he's gonna get to work in the next couple weeks and come back with, with some plans," Kevin said.

Corn Palace staff and the board discussed contracting out the installation of murals. Staff said they expect to finalize mural designs around May 1 and are considering an RFP to hire a contractor experienced in mural installation to do the corn-panel installation efficiently in the fall. Kevin explained the plan would keep the rye portion of the mural work for local high school students while contracting the corn installation portion to a firm with lifts and crews. "It would look like an advertisement for professional services to receive bids from a contracting company of some sort to come up and hang the murals," he said.

Staff also confirmed they recently renewed the corn-grower contract for three years and plan to maintain parts of the traditional community process while adding contracted capacity for the larger, time-sensitive corn panels. The committee identified the back room, heating and cooling repairs and chairs as priority items and said they are looking for a major donor to offset renovation costs. Staff expects to have further updates after the next Shimmer meeting scheduled in the coming week.